While offering advice to families, the department also offers many valuable resources and lots of good advice to those seeking jobs in Cleveland and the surrounding area. The Department also offers services to employers, and offers advice and news about children and families, workforce development, family stability and state Medicaid.

The Department is headed by Director Helen E. Jones-Kelley. The Department's goals are to help Ohioans improve the quality of their lives and to be the nation's leading family support and workforce development system. To do this, the Department focuses on accountability, compassion, integrity, respect and teamwork.

Overall, the Department looks to helping children grow up safe and healthy, youth becoming responsible adults, individuals and businesses realizing their greatest degree of well-being, seniors and individuals with a disability or chronic illness receiving healthcare, and achieving and maintaining excellence in the workforce.

The department's Web site offers an occupation explorer, which allows job seekers to search any occupation by county, compare areas and occupations and find training providers and programs.

The site's job bank provides labor market information, which can help job seekers discover the most in-demand occupations, shorten job search time, and increase economic returns from training investments. The site also provides access to average pay figures for various positions, and determines which occupations are expected to grow or decline.

The ODJFS projects that through 2014, cashier, stock clerk, order filer, team assembler and secretary positions will be on a declining slope.

According to the Department, the top five fastest growing jobs in Ohio include:

network systems and data communications analyst at a projected growth rate of 47.3 percent through 2014 with 412 annual openings and a $32.73 per hour average wage in 2006

home health aides at a projected growth rate of 45 percent with 1,973 annual openings and a $9.42 per hour wage

physician assistants at a projected growth rate of 43 percent with 125 annual openings and a $36.02 per hour wage

computer software engineers and applications at a projected growth rate of 42.5 percent with 798 annual openings and a $35.10 per hour wage

medical assistants at a projected growth rate of 42.2 percent with 1,044 annual openings and an $11.98 per hour wage.

The top five occupations in the state with the most annual job openings include:

retail salesperson with 8,201 openings and an $11.11 per hour average wage in 2006

cashiers with 6,864 annual openings and an $8 per hour wage

waiters and waitresses with 5,799 openings and a $7.03 per hour wage

food service workers with 5,208 openings and a $7.25 per hour wage and laborers with 5,010 openings and an $11.41 per hour wage.